Parents on the Autism-PDD Message Board up in arms
Adam Jasinski’s Profile on Reality TV World
Autismville post - Autism: Brotherly Hate
KYW Newsradio Interview with Jasinski
Quote from Adam - “I am an alpha male. I’m pretty much self-centered. I love myself.”
Quote from Adam’s dad - “I really hope he wins, because he wants to give part of his winnings to the Autism Foundation.”
Here’s what I think, I think this “Autism Foundation” is a front for Jasinski to try and win the $500,000 Big Brother prize. I poked around the net and found http://www.unitedautismfoundation.org - the UNIAF website at http://uniaf.org was just a storefront it seems and is registered and resolves to a location in Germany - uniaf.org was registered in April of 2007. Unitedautismfoundation.org was registered on 12/15/2007 to an individual in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The projects, programs, events, get involved, be informed, and official supporter section of the website are not developed. The About Us page is and includes the following information:
The United Autism Foundation is a corporation, which was only established to serve and improve our community in order to help children and change lives.
Corporation? Interesting. The “donate now” section of the unitedautismfoundation.org website is certainly working, how’s that for a surprise? I’m not saying that the organization isn’t genuine but the shabby nature of the site, the fairly recent registration of the domain, and the timing of the foundation’s launch with the airing of Big Brother leads me to think that Jasinski isn’t doing this for the altruistic factor.
I know there is a registry of reputable 501(c)3 organizations, I’ve researched them in the past, but I cannot for the life of me remember the link. If you know it, I’d be interested in seeing if UNIAF is listed.
I am a Big Brother fan, I’ve watched every season of it. I actually forgot that it started this week as I’m so used to it being a summer show. Imagine my surprise when I opened up my Google Reader this morning and see Kristina Chew’s post on her Autism Vox blog entitled Kids With Autism Are Not Retards. Adam Jasinski who is the public relations manager for the United Autism Foundation actually used the incredibly offensive and rather ignorant term “retards” when describing the group of special needs children he works with. In the video clip posted on the Autism Vox site, Jasinski even goes so far as to say that he works with “them” all day and he can call them what he wants. I can only imagine that this is certainly NOT the type of publicity that the United Autism Foundation expected to receive when they heard that Jasinski would be appearing on the reality TV show.
Jasinski needs to step up to the plate and offer an apology for this incredulous statement.
Another post on the topic:
Outrage at Good Job, Mama!
Last month my son attended his first chess club meeting; chess club meets for an hour before school on Friday mornings. That was his first, and up until today only, chess club meeting. They went over the names of the chess pieces and the allowed moves. That weekend my son and I played chess and I was surprised at how quickly he picked it up. The second week of chess club the instructor was double-booked so there was no meeting. The third week the instructor was MIA so there was no meeting. Last night the new instructor, Coach Leo, called to confirm that yes he would be there this morning. Sure enough, Coach Leo was the first person on the scene. Alexander is now attending his second chess club meeting.
In these past few weeks we’ve been playing chess,both over our LAN and with the actual board. He gets a little obsessive with the pieces on the board and will kind of zone out as he lines up the pieces he’s captured so LAN play is a bit more productive. I am obviously worse than I remember and he’s better than I gave him credit for - if I don’t pay attention he’ll beat me. Our first LAN game ended in a draw. I barely beat him the next two games and that was with me playing to the best of my ability. I love how he’s fine when he loses a strategy game like chess. Last year we were playing the game “Sorry” and as he realized he was losing he leapt over the board game at me like a lion after an antelope and attacked me. Losing at chess he just says “let’s play again.” Whew, I’m not in risk of bodily harm.
So this morning while waiting for the custodian to open the library up for chess club, Coach Leo mentioned a chess tournament that is being held tomorrow. We’d have to register Alexander with the American Scholastic Chess Federation but would receive a magazine as well as be ranked nationally. In the tournament he would play with other children in 1st - 3rd grade that are also beginners. The only requirement to play in the tournament is that they know the rules of the game. Four games are played and it is a zero elimination tournament, all children get to play four games. Alexander’s eyes widened upon hearing of the tournament and he proclaimed his desire to go. Seeing him enthusiastic about something is really great so it looks like I will be spending my Saturday in a waiting room with other parents of chess lovers.
